CALL FOR ENTRIES

2025 WPOW Annual Photography + Multimedia Exhibition

Women Photojournalists of Washington (WPOW) is pleased to announce an open call for submissions to the WPOW Annual Photography and Multimedia Exhibition.

The exhibition entry period begins on May 12, 2025 and ends June 1, 2025 at 11:59 pm.

Women Photojournalists of Washington is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to educating the public about the role of women, and those who identify as women, in visual journalism and fostering their professional success. The exhibition will showcase select work of our members from the last year by bringing their unique experiences to the forefront by highlighting how women contribute to the nation and world. 

The work will be showcased at a public exhibition scheduled for November 2025, hosted by WPOW and its sponsors. A Best in Show entry will be selected for both the Pro and Student categories. The selected work will also be presented as a national traveling exhibition at universities across the country. A slideshow will be presented during workshops and lectures throughout the year, and the show will be featured prominently on WPOW’s website.

Thank you for your participation, and we look forward to seeing your work.

Our 2025 Exhibition Curator is Sandra M. Stevenson.

Stevenson is an award-winning Writer / Visual Editor / Curator who recently joined Education Week as Managing Editor, Visuals and Immersive Experience. 

Before joining Education Week, Sandra was Deputy Director of Photography at The Washington Post, where she managed a team of picture editors covering International, Climate and Health + Science. Previously, she served as Associate Deputy Director of Photography at CNN, overseeing picture editors responsible for curating the home screen, editing stories and newsletters, and producing special projects. Prior to that, she was an Assistant Editor at The New York Times, where she supervised digital photo editors on the news desk and contributed to visual content for Race/Related and Gender.

RULES AND ENTRY INFORMATION 

  • The exhibition entry period begins May 12, 2025 and ends on June 1, 2025 at 11:59 pm.

  • Only current WPOW members are eligible to participate. For information about joining WPOW, click HERE 

  • Participation in the exhibition is free. 

  • Images and/or multimedia projects and a completed Entry Form must be submitted via Dropbox by the deadline: June 1, 2025 at 11:59 pm.

  • A WPOW member may submit up to four (4) still images and/or multimedia project(s) for consideration. A total of four (4) entries will be accepted per member. 

  • Each still image/multimedia project will be considered a single. No photo stories will be accepted. 

  • If an image or multimedia project has been included in a previous WPOW exhibition, it is ineligible to be entered again. 

  • Images and multimedia projects must have been captured, completed, or published between May 6, 2024 and May 11, 2025. 

  • Entry forms must be included completely and accurately with your submission. Any

    submission without a completed Entry Form will not be considered.

  • Category 01 – Professional/Still Images or Multimedia Project: You must be a WPOW Member who is not a student. 

    Category 02 – Student/Still Images or Multimedia Project: You must be a WPOW Member who is a student actively working towards a career in the visual journalism field.

  • STILL IMAGE ENTRIES

    Still Image submissions should be named in the following manner: Category number + your initials + the sequential numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 (a total of four(4) entries will be accepted per member.) If you have no middle name, use “x” as your middle initial.

    MULTIMEDIA ENTRIES

    Multimedia submissions will be accepted in the form of a link and should follow the same file naming guidelines as still images: Category number + your initials + the sequential numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. If you have no middle name, use “x” as your middle initial.

    File naming examples:

    ~Pro Jessie A. Monroe’s four entries would be named: 01jam1, 01jam2, and 01jam3.

    ~Student Frida Parajanov’s four entries would be named: 02fxp1 and 02fxp2 and 02fxp3.

  • STILL IMAGE ENTRIES

    Image files should be submitted as high-quality JPEGs. No borders, watermarks, etc. may appear on your images.

    Each image should be rendered as an RGB or Grayscale file. Do not use CMYK.

    Final individual image size should be at least 10-12.5 inches (2500 px) at its longest dimension at 150 DPI. Uncompressed RGB file size should be about 10-15 megabytes.

    Save images as a large JPEG using Baseline (Standard.)

    If selected for the exhibition, you will be asked to supply a toned TIFF file of your image that can be printed at 20 inches on the shortest side at 300 dpi.

    MULTIMEDIA ENTRIES

    Submit multimedia projects as a ​downloadable Vimeo or YouTube link. Provide a password as necessary.

    Multimedia projects may be up to 20 minutes in length.

    The WPOW member submitting must have had at least a 50% role in the production of the piece.

    If you are submitting multiple multimedia projects, a separate link must be provided for each project.

  • STILL IMAGE ENTRIES

    Embed your image files with your name, image title, caption information and photo credit using the “Author,” “Title” “Description” and “Credit” IPTC data (metadata) fields. Do not enter your name in the “caption” or “description” IPTC fields.

    Captions should be limited to three sentences, or 85 words. Please use AP caption style as a standard - who, what, where, when and why.

    Edit your captions carefully, as images selected for the exhibition will be displayed with the captions, as submitted. WPOW is not responsible for any errors in caption information.

    MULTIMEDIA ENTRIES

    On your Vimeo or YouTube page, include your name, project title, and complete project description, using AP caption style as a standard - who, what, where, when and why.

ETHICAL GUIDELINES

Reasonable adjustments in Photoshop are acceptable. No elements should be digitally added to or subtracted from any photograph and/or multimedia project, and the work must be a truthful representation of whatever happened in front of the camera during exposure. Retouching to eliminate dust and scratches is acceptable. Reasonable adjustments (including cropping, dodging and burning, conversion into Grayscale, and normal toning and color adjustments that restore the authentic nature of the photograph) are acceptable. Excessive changes in density, contrast, color, and saturation levels that alter the original scene are not acceptable. Backgrounds should not be digitally blurred or eliminated by burning down or by aggressive toning.

START YOUR SUBMISSION PROCESS 

TO ENTER IMAGES AND/OR MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS, you will need to:

  • Create a submission folder labeled: Category-LastName-FirstName-WPOW2025

  • If you are submitting multimedia projects, save a downloadable link(s) for your project(s) in a Word document. 

  • Download and sign your Entry Agreement. Any submission without a completed entry Agreement will not be considered. 

  • Gather your signed Entry Agreement and your work (including the Word doc. with your link info. if you are submitting multimedia projects) in the submission folder. 

  • Send your folder containing your work AND Entry Agreement via WeTransfer to exhibitions@womenphotojournalists.org by June 1, 2025 at 11:59 pm.